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Sweden and Britain to Evacuate 41 Bosnians

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The British and Swedish Governments said today that they would evacuate 41 war victims from besieged Sarajevo. The announcement follows an outpouring of public outrage and sympathy touched off by the plight of a seriously wounded five-year-old Bosnian girl fighting for her life in a London hospital.

Prime Minister John Major, speaking in Stockholm alongside the Swedish Prime Minister, Carl Bildt, said Britain would take in 20 of the 41 victims, half of whom are children. Sixteen will be transported to Sweden, and five others will be treated in Ireland.

The victims, who have been identified by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as requiring immediate medical evacuation, will be flown out of Sarajevo aboard a British air ambulance within the next 48 hours, said Mr. Major, who also appealed for other governments to assist in evacuating war victims.

As Mr. Major spoke, doctors in the intensive care unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital here were carefully monitoring the condition of little Irma Hadzimuratovic, whose tiny, pain-racked frame has emerged in recent days as latest haunting symbol of the Bosnian war.

Mr. Major ordered British pilots to fly her out after television and newspaper accounts earlier this week described her desperate situation inside a Sarajevo hospital, beyond the reach of medicine needed to treat the gaping wounds she suffered in a recent mortar attack.

Officials at the London hospital, which specializes in the treatment of children, described Irma as "critical but stable." Her condition improved slightly today, after doctors said she had suffered "a marked deterioration" overnight.

Doctors say her treatment has been complicated by meningitis, a inflammation of the membranes enclosing the brain or the spinal cord.

Speaking through a translator at a hospital news conference today, Ramiz Hadzimuratovic, the girl's father, appealed for the rescue of other wounded children in Sarajevo, describing the city as "a concentration camp."

"I, as an ordinary man, appeal to the world to help the people of Sarajevo, to stop the suffering," he said.

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Little Irma's flight to safety, and her continuing medical drama, has dominated newspaper and television coverage here in recent days.

Moved by Irma's plight, thousands of people in Britain and elsewhere have flooded the Ormond Street Hospital with letters, balloons, stuffed animals and get-well telegrams. At the same time, the stories of other youngsters still trapped inside Sarajevo have prompted hospitals to volunteer free medical treatment, and moved ordinary people, businesses and charitable foundations to offer money to pay for their transportation and care.

The Birmingham Evening Mail has begun a public appeal to pay for wounded children to be treated at Birmingham Children's Hospital. And Nuffield Hospitals, an independent hospital chain in Britain, has offered 12 beds and free medical treatment.

In announcing the evacuation today, Mr. Major said the Government of Saudi Arabia had agreed to contribute toward the cost of the medical airlift. A Saudi Embassy spokesman in London said the pledge was for $150,000.

David Blunkett, a spokesman for the opposition Labor Party, welcomed the Prime Minister's move, but described it as "the clear result of the Government bowing to massive public pressure after months of inaction and prevarication."

But Mr. Major, responding to questions, dismissed suggestions that Britain had been goaded into humanitarian action because of newspaper and television reports about young Irma.

"We have had the largest humanitarian operation in Bosnia of any nation for a very long time," Mr. Major said, estimating that the presence of British peacekeeping troops, assigned to escort relief convoys, had already saved more than 100,000 lives.

The Prime Minister also warned Bosnian Serbs not to misinterpret the British-Swedish initiative. "The Serbs should realize that we are determined to make sure there is a settlement to this dreadful dispute," Mr. Major said.

A version of this article appears in print on August 12, 1993, on Page A00013 of the National edition with the headline: Sweden and Britain to Evacuate 41 Bosnians. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe